Meredith Mast has been performing, studying, and teaching ballet for over 25 years. Mrs. Mast began her ballet training in Miami, Florida, under the instruction of Carol Ravich, a former ballerina with the Boston Ballet, and Thomas Armour of the Miami Ballet. At age 14, Mrs. Mast was accepted into the Houston Ballet Academy on full scholarship. While in the Academy, she danced several of Ben Stevenson’s works, including the lead in Tangos for Emily, which was performed for Princess Cristina of Sweden at the Academy’s annual concert.

At the age of 17, Mrs. Mast was accepted into the Houston Ballet where she danced roles in many of the classics including Swan Lake, Giselle, Coppelia, The Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella. She has also performed several Balanchine works including Serenade, Four Temperaments, and Symphony in C.
Upon retiring from the Houston Ballet, Mrs. Mast earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. After graduating, Meredith pursued a career in human resources and also began teaching ballet. After moving to Madison with her husband in 1999, she designed a program specifically for children ages 3-7 called Storybook Ballet™. The program incorporates basic ballet instruction with costumes, props, music, drama, and children’s stories. The program has grown from 10 students in the spring of 2000, to over 250 students currently. In addition, she has taught classical ballet at all levels at various local studios.

Mrs. Mast’s passion is teaching and working with children. When teaching dance to young children, she believes in tapping into the child’s imagination and allowing the child to explore dance freely. By making movement magical, she hopes to “plant the seed” for a love of the art form which “will grow” individually. With older children and adults, she emphasizes proper classical ballet technique yet still provides opportunities for the students to move freely such that their love of dance will continue to flourish. Mrs. Mast enjoys her home out in the country and is also the mother of four young boys!

Grace, a Madison native, began her dance training at age 9 under the direction of Shannon Gallagher. She took classes in ballet, pointe, and jazz until her final year of high school, when she decided to devote more time to acting. She won 3rd place in Duo Interpretation at the WFCA State forensics tournament that year, as well as playing Esther in Madison Memorial's spring play, "To Gillian on her 37th Birthday". While acting is a passion that runs in the family (her older sister has a Theatre degree), Grace never lost her love for ballet, and she started as a Teacher Assistant at Storybook in the summer of 2009. She is currently a busy junior at UW-Madison, double majoring in Gender & Women's Studies and Spanish, acts as co-chair of a student organization, and holds a part-time retail job during the summer. Grace continues to take ballet classes when she can, but teaching at Storybook remains the favorite part of her week. She is continually amazed at how bright, funny, and open-minded her students are. She is thrilled to be entering her 3rd year at Storybook Ballet.
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Anna Grilley started dancing at the Central Wisconsin School of Ballet at age nine. Over the years she was privileged to train with Irina Koplakova, Vladi Semenov, Derryl Yeager and Charthel Arthur. She has had the opportunity to perform in numerous ballet and musical theatre productions. Her favorite roles include Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty, the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, and Jellylorum in CATS. In her four years of teaching ballet she has incorporated aspects of musical theatre and imagination into every class.

Anna is currently finishing a degree in English Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was fortunate to be able to spend the past year studying at the University of Bristol in England, but is excited to return to Madison and Storybook Ballet.

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Maelanie began her ballet training at age 3 in Washington DC. After moving to Madison as a child, she began studying with Charmaine Ristow, Susan Marsden, and Tibor Zana. By age 13, she began studying with the Milwaukee Ballet School, as well as attending summer programs with the Joffrey Ballet and the Boston Ballet School. Maelanie earned her degree in Education from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and combined her love of ballet and desire to teach by directing a private studio serving over 500 students each year. After nine years of studio ownership, Maelanie scaled back to spend more time with her family, and began teaching all levels of ballet at the School of Madison Ballet. She also teaches for Madison Ballet’s outreach program, Movement in Your World, which brings creative movement classes to forty Headstart classrooms each year, and assists with Madison Ballet’s productions.

Maelanie lives in Monona with her husband and two young boys. She is very excited to be in her 3rd year at Storybook Ballet and to witness the magic of ballet through the eyes of young children.